How to Do a Volleyball Pokey

Learn how to do a volleyball pokey in this Howcast sports video with Aurora Skarra-Gallagher and Tanya White.

Transcript

In beach volley there are several ways to attempt a pokey over the block.

When you have a tight ball, and you can't hit it over the block, or roll shot over the block, a pokey is a great option. There is the cobra pokey, where you kind of form your fingers into a cobra or a viper, and you contact the ball on the plate of the knuckle here. So you're going to contact on the way up over the block along the line this way, or you can wrap it around and poke short along the cut side of the net.

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I prefer the full bear paw pokey, because you have a little bit more control because you're touching every single finger, and this way you can go up and you can do the line over a little more controlled. In this one it only hits the two, and if it mis-hits, it will go in a direction you didn't intend it to. But in this one it gives you a little bit more time to guide the ball, so when you go up and over the block, you have a little more control, and when you do the sideways you have a little more control.

And you don't want to jab at it really hard, because that will send the ball shooting. You just kind of want to get your hand up and touch just a little bit on contact, it's more of a shoulder shrug than a full extension hit. And when you're coming in to do a pokey, you want to come in like you're actually going to hit, and at the last minute form your hand into your pokey so that you fool the defense. And those are a couple ways you can use a pokey in beach volleyball.